The Hope of the Resurrection
I Peter 1: 3-9
In the depressing days of the viet
Nam war, Phil Caputo had perhaps the most traumatic job of all – his job
was to count the dead and verify their identity.
He says that he became so used to death that he could literally look
into the eyes of the living and tell you what they would like dead.
Our privilege as Christians is
exactly the opposite. The bible
says that non believers are spiritually dead – but as Christians who have
our hope founded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ we can look them in the
eye and envision what they would look like if they were full alive in
Christ. We have the privilege
of bringing hope to the hurting.
For many people Easter is just
another holiday about bunny rabbits and hunting easter eggs or a fairy tale
they don’t believe. For
believers in Christ, Easter means the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead. It means the promise of
life after death because Jesus conquered the grave.
The
resurrection is the supreme miracle of Christianity –
it is at the heart of the faith. If
it never happened, Christianity collapses into mythology and billions of
people have been deceived. If
it did happen, it authenticates everything Jesus did and said.
The Apostle Paul said it this way in I
cor. 15:17: “if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is worthless.”
So it’s a pretty important matter.
If Christ didn’t rise from the
dead, then we’re just wasting our time here every Sunday.
The resurrection is the most important event in all of history.
Let’s see why its’ so important.
I
Peter I: 3-9
3 Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has
given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, 4 and
into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance
is kept in heaven for you, 5 who
through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the
salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In
all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had
to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These
have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth
than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though
you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now,
you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for
you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
(NIV)
At the time of this writing Peter
was an old man. A disciple that
had been through multiple battles. He
had sorted through life and discovered there were some things not worth
fighting over and there were other things he was willing to die for. One of those principles worth dying for was this: the living
hope of the resurrection.
Christians
have a living hope because of the resurrection.
Not just a cheery optimism but a
hope based on a historical fact that Jesus died and rose again and promises
that those who believe in him will do the same.
There are a number of things I will
never hear:
Shawn – soloist sick could
you fill in
Carole – looking a little skinny, you need to put on a few pounds.
Chip – if I am looking a three foot put; Chip will never say: just
pick it up – that’s good.
One thing I’ll never hear
from God: Tom, there is no hope
for you. The resurrection
gives me hope.
Our very hope for the future is
rooted in the truth of the resurrection.
It is one of the reasons the early Christians changed the primary day
of worship from the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day – every week is a
celebration of the living Lord.
How does it give us hope?
Helps
us overcome the Scars of the past
Some of you are feeling the weight
of yesterday’s failures. Dreams
have disappeared – life has not turned out the way you thought it would.
You have crossed a line you thought you would never cross.
The past can be an albatross around our necks.
It can weigh down our heart and take away our joy.
Some of you are still suffering over
an event that happened years ago. It bruised you physically, emotionally and
sometimes spiritually.
Maybe it was A betrayal
a bad decision a loss an
accident a missed
opportunity
dozens of you in this congregation
are struggling with issues like that.
If that heavy situation is because
of sins in your own life, God says to us that he stands ready to forgiven
anything that has happened.
If the pain was not due to your sin
but to someone else’s sin or just to the circumstances of life: Isaiah
43:18 says: “forget
the former things, do not dwell on the past, see, I am doing a new thing.
Now it springs up, do you not perceive it.”
Life is to short to waste our time
fretting over things that cannot be changed.
We can visit the past but we can’t live there.
Helps
us overcome the Problems of today
We all have problems we have to deal
with. When those are solved,
new ones arrive. There will
never be a time when you are problem free until you are received into
God’s heaven.
Jesus had to deal with the greatest
problem of history – how to forgive the sins of mankind. He suffered as no one has before or since.
The agony of an innocent person dying for someone else is
overwhelming. How could he
stand it? The humiliation,
people spitting in his face, the flogging of the whip, the crown of thorns,
the slow suffocation of crucifixion.
Hebrews 12:2
actually tells us how: “fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy
set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God.”
Endured it because he knew it was
temporary – he knew the resurrection was coming – once he passed through
the pain – joy was coming.
In this life there are many times
when the problem just doesn’t seem to end:
The illness continues to linger
The disappointment keeps reappearing
The thorn that won’t be removed
How do we cope? We know it’s only
temporary. We have the
living hope of the resurrection. As
long as we have hope we can maintain our optimism and faith in God. When hope is gone:
Joy departs and frustration sets in
Bitterness, anger and hatred take over
Life turns sour
Our ultimate hope is not in an immediate
solution to our problem – in fact things may not get better, they may get
worse – our hope is that God says I will not leave you nor forsake you and
will walk with you through your problems until one day it will all be over
and you will enjoy the benefits of the resurrection body. He guarantees us
an eventual solution to our problems.
There are times all we can do is
hang on. Space mountain.
Small compartment, dark, belted in, jerks you around – sudden dips
– breakneck speed – sudden stops – when it ends
people get out smiling.
Helps
us overcome the Fear of the future
There is a lot of fear in the world
today. National fears: Fear that
America is going to turn her back on God and follow the path of ancient
Israel. There is fear that the
economy will fall apart and we will go bankrupt as a nation.
There is fear that the social security system will not be there for
our children. There is fear of
terrorism invading our shores again. There
is fear of a rogue nation using a nuclear weapon.
While it is possible that any or all of those things may
happen, as a believer in Jesus Christ, we cannot live in fear.
Personal
fears: will
I have health issues: financial
issues; will I have a job
will my children grow up in the faith Perhaps
the greatest fear of mankind is death.
Even
the most skeptical among us still have a glimmer of hope that the Easter
story is true—that Christ has been raised from the dead.
Ray. Kurzweil is a brilliant scientist,
inventor, author and a man who is greatly influencing thought about
humanity’s future, particular as it relates to the rapid increases in the
power of computers. His specialty is artificial intelligence and
transhumanism. He has been featured in numerous magazines including
the cover of Time magazine with an article titled, “2045:
The Year Man Becomes Immortal.” Ray Kurzweil claims no religious
affiliation; no belief in God. And yet Kurzweil hungers for immortality.
When asked if God exists? He responded: Not
yet but we will create him because even geeks want to find God somewhere.
One
of the motivations for his life’s work is the dream of resurrecting his
dead father. In the Feb. 2009 issue of Rolling Stone, he said that he was
trying to construct a genetic copy of his father from DNA taken from his
grave. This is his dream. He
hopes not only to avoid death himself, but also to reconnect someday with
his dead father by somehow resurrecting him through the wonders of science.
It is a shame that Ray Kurzweil, this
brilliant scientist and thinker, is not able to relax and believe the good
news of Easter. Christ has provided a way for him to be reconnected with his
dead father. And it has nothing to do with complex algorithms. It is real,
as real as life itself.
In
II Tim. 1:7 the Bible says: “for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of
power and love and self discipline.”
How can we possibly live like that?
Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we know that those who believe
in Him will live forever.
Story:
3 men talking about how they wanted to be remembered when they died.
What would you like for people to say when they walk by your casket?
He was a great businessman – very successful – built a prosperous
company. 2nd: he was a great family man – loved his wife and kids –
close relationship; 3rd
says: this is what I want them
to say: hey look, he’s
moving!!
What will life be like 100 years
from now? We don’t have any
idea but we know it will be vastly different from today.
100 years ago in 1912 the life expectancy was 48 for men, 51 for
women. The divorce rate was 1 in 1,000.
National debt was 1.1Billion; 95% of births took place in the home;
90% of physicians had no college degree; the leading cause of death was
pneumonia and influenza. Life
has changed.
One thing we know for certain:
100 years from now we’ll all be dead – then what.
Hebrews 9:27 says: “just as man is destined
to die once, and after that to face judgment.”
When our friends on earth on saying
goodby; our friends in heaven will be saying hello.
You and I will be resurrected. The
reason I know that? The Bible
says that just as Jesus was the first fruit of the resurrection, we too will
be resurrected to the fullness of life with Jesus in heaven.
How
can I know for sure that I will be resurrected with Jesus?
Admit we are guilty Rom.
3:23
Believe the story
Rom. 10:9
Confess our sins
I John 1: 9
Live in faith Hebrews
11: 6